Twenty
Jenny closed the oven door with a proud smile. She, under the careful supervision of Kelly, was trying her hand at making a roast. It was Jack's last night in town and they had invited Joann and Mac over for a family dinner. It wasn't Jenny or Gibbs' ideal family dinner, the team wouldn't be there, it was Friday night and they all had plans but Jack had wanted all of them to get together one last time before he left town.
"It's looking good." Kelly stated, peaking over her shoulder.
"Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks." Jenny replied, grabbing a stack of plates out of the cupboard, "where's your brother?"
"He's outside with Grandpa." Kelly replied, grabbing a few glasses, "Grandpa Mac and Grandma should be here soon."
"Where's your dad?" Jenny asked, following Kelly into the dining room to set the table.
"Hiding upstairs with Dani and Ava."
"He's not hiding." Jenny replied with a small smirk.
"He's hiding." Kelly repeated.
"Okay so maybe he's hiding." Jenny conceded, "I'll go get him."
"I'll go let them in." Kelly replied when there was a knock on the front door.
"Thanks." Jenny called out over her shoulder as she made her way upstairs.
She found Gibbs stretched out on the floor of Ava's nursery, Ava was laying on her stomach and grinning at the toys spread out in front of her.
"Your daughter thinks you're hiding." Jenny stated.
"Our daughter is smart." Gibbs replied.
She groaned as she slowly lowered herself to the floor in front of him and leaned her back against him. His arm immediately fell to her waist, Jenny reached out and straightened out the dress Ava was wearing and grinned when the baby giggled.
"Hey, Ava." Jenny cooed, "are you hiding out with Daddy?"
Ava squealed and rolled herself over to face them, Jenny reached out and pulled her into her lap and straightened out her wispy hair as she did so.
"They're here, by the way." She stated when the sound of voices drifted up the stairs and through the open door. "She needs to be changed." She added when she felt baby's diaper, "I'll do it, I think Kelly would appreciate it if you went downstairs."
"Which also means you want to hide." He replied as he pushed himself off the floor before helping her up.
"Yes." Jenny replied, leaning up to give him a kiss, "just for a minute… They're just people, we face down murderers and drug lords and we're afraid or two seventy year olds."
"No one likes their in-laws." Gibbs reminded her.
"I like, Jack." Jenny argued, "and it's not that I don't like Joann and Mac… I just…"
"Don't know how to take them yet." Gibbs finished for her.
"Yeah." She agreed empathetically, "I'll get there but right now I want just five more minutes before I go downstairs."
She let him steal another kiss before shooing him out of the room. She took her time changing Ava's diaper and then slowly made her way down the hallway, she paused outside of Dani's open door and poked her head in.
"Joann and Mac are here." She stated.
She stepped further into the room when she saw what Dani was doing. The teen was standing in front of her mirror staring at her reflection with a critical eye.
"What's up, Dan?" She asked, using Gibbs' pet name for her daughter.
"Does this outfit look okay?"
Jenny studied the outfit, simple black jeans, and a black pullover sweater with a black and white polka-dotted blouse underneath. It was nice but it wasn't exactly Dani's style.
"It's nice, not what you usually wear though." Jenny pointed out.
"I wanted to look normal for dinner." Dani admitted with a sigh, "they kept looking at Abby and I funny last time."
Jenny had brushed off Joann's cold behaviour towards Abby, the excitable goth sometimes took awhile to get used to but she had been so preoccupied with everything else going on that she hadn't even thought about how Dani would perceive it. Now, watching Dani tug on the collar of her blouse she regretted it, a part of her really wanted to go downstairs and give Joann a piece of her mind but the reasonable half of her knew it wouldn't do anyone any good.
"Normal is a subjective term and it's also a very boring thing to be." Jenny stated, "if you're more comfortable in what you're wearing that's fine but if you want to wear something else then wear it. This is your home, Dani, don't let other people change how you feel or what you do in it."
Dani sighed and pulled at the collar again.
"I'm going to wear it." She said with a shrug, "I'd be more uncomfortable with them staring."
"I'll talk to them." Jenny promised.
"No, no don't do that." Dani argued, "really I'll be fine."
"It's not fair that you have to change for them."
"You do it too." Dani pointed out, "you get passive when they're around and that's not like you."
It wasn't said meanly or to spite Jenny, it was just a simple fact and Jenny nodded slowly.
"It's a difficult situation Dani, in their minds I'm replacing their daughter I have to find a balance that's going to work for us but you being uncomfortable will not be a part of that." She replied firmly.
"I'll be fine, if I need you to say something I'll let you know." Dani promised, "I just don't want to rock the boat right now."
"Alright." Jenny conceded, "but let's get downstairs before Gibbs gets overwhelmed by the amount of people in the house and dies or loses his mind."
"Men are so weak." Dani muttered.
Jenny couldn't stop the laugh that escaped as she nodded her agreement, she shifted Ava to her other hip and followed Dani down the stairs and into the living room where sure enough Gibbs was looking decidedly uncomfortable. She exchanged slightly awkward greetings with Joann and Mac before taking a seat a foot away from Gibbs on the couch.
"Where's Kelly?" She asked, looking around for the teen.
"She went to get Jack and Jake and to get drinks for everyone." Gibbs replied, reaching out to take Ava.
"How old is she again?" Mac asked, nodding to Ava.
"Seven months old." Jenny replied proudly, "She'll actually be eight months in two weeks."
"You look good for having had her only eight months ago." Joann stated, eyeing Jenny up and down.
"Oh, No." Jenny corrected quickly, "Ava isn't biologically ours, neither is Jake."
"I'm going to go help Kelly with those drinks." Dani stated, fleeing the room.
"We brought them home when we got Kelly back." Gibbs explained.
The conversation was mercifully cut short by the appearance of Jake who flew through the dining room and into the living room before launching himself at Jenny. She braced herself for the impact and moved her injured wrist out of the way not a moment to soon as the excited seven year old landed on her.
"Mom, mom, mom, mom!"
"What? What? What?" Jenny replied, nudging Jake around until he was seated comfortable on her lap.
"You missed a what." He pointed out with a grin.
"Okay sorry, what?" She replied ruffling his hair.
"Agent Rollins was showing me all the cool buttons in his car and he let me turn on the lights!"
Jenny raised her eyebrow and glanced over at Jack who had just appeared at a much calmer pace.
"They're some nice people you've got out there." He stated, "Seem to know what they're doing too."
"They're some of our best." Jenny agreed, "not quite as good as your son and his team but right up there, and they're discreet too."
"I didn't even realize they were there until Jake pointed them out." Jack admitted, "they stay out of the way."
"Daddy showed me how to find all of them." Jake said proudly.
"Who is Agent Rollins?" Joann asked.
"A member of my security detail, they normally don't interact unless they're getting instructions but they have a soft spot for the kids."
"You have a security detail?" Mac asked in surprise, "I thought you said you worked for NCIS."
"I do…"
"She's their director." Jack stated proudly, "first female director of an armed federal agency and one of the youngest to boot."
"That is impressive." Mac said, nodding in approval, "must've taken a lot of hard work to get there."
"It did." Jenny agreed, "but I had a lot of good people helping me out along the way."
She shot Gibbs a small smile and he smirked back at her, she was ignoring the critical look she was getting from Joann and taking a minute to enjoy the praise. It wasn't often that people acknowledged her accomplishments, normally she got looked down on for being a woman or people insinuated she had slept her way to the top so it was nice to hear someone acknowledge all of the hard work she had put in. She didn't need constant praise but it was nice every once in awhile.
N*C*I*S
They made it through dinner without any major incidents, Jake spilled a glass of water and Ava knocked food off of the tray of her highchair but all things considered Jenny counted the meal as a success. She was just about to stand and begin to clear plates when her cellphone began to vibrate in her pocket, she pulled it out under the table and looked at the caller ID.
"I am so sorry I have to take this." She stated pushing back her chair.
N*C*I*S
"Shepard."
Gibbs listened but couldn't hear her half of the conversation once she was out of earshot. He went back to feeding the baby and was just about to start clearing dishes himself when Jenny reappeared, her phone still against her ear and her voice stern.
"I want my M.E there, he is the best in the state, this case is mine." She stated adamantly, "No, all do respect but your agents dropped the ball big time, they fumbled and now I have to clean up after it, this is my case end of story."
She hung up the phone and ran her hand through her hair.
"Jake, go upstairs and take a shower." She ordered gently.
"But mom it's-"
"Listen to your mother." Gibbs chastised quietly, "go take a quick shower and then you can watch a movie with Grandpa after supper."
"Is everything okay, Jenny?" Jack asked as soon as Jake was gone.
"Um, no…" She responded slowly, she turned to Gibbs her voice wavering as her earlier bravado disappeared, "you and I need to go into the office, it's an emergency."
"Is everyone okay?" Gibbs asked standing up quickly.
"Your team is fine." She reassured him quickly, "That was the director of the Secret Service, SecNav's agents just found him in his study."
"What do you mean found him?"
"He's dead." Jenny replied, running her hand through her hair.
Well guys we did it! Another part done, just as an update we are at 43 chapters total, I've been working on this story for 1 year and seven months or 585 days, and we are well over 100,000 words! I have loved this part of the story so much, seeing Jack and getting a bit of Gibbs' side of the family was fantastic and so much fun to write and I'm excited to continue on with them…. Spoiler: the next part will be a lot more about Jenny's side of the family… Thank you all so much for your continued support I love all of your comments and your feed back is always amazing! I am so grateful for all of you! For everyone asking for a sequel I want you to know that this story is in no way done! I just break it up into parts so I can do time jumps and such, I still have a lot planned (My original plan was to go through the entire first year with the family and I still think I'm going to do that if everyone is up for it!) So I love to hear from you guys and thank you for sticking with me on this absolutely wild ride!
~Katie